Mr. Lloyd George successfully took care, however, that the bark should have no immediate bite behind it. The consideration of effective penalties was postponed, and the Germans were invited to attend in London in a monthʼs time to convey their answer by word of mouth.
M. Briand duly secured his triumph in the Chamber. “Rarely,” The Times reported, “can M. Briand in all his long career as a speaker and Parliamentarian have been in better form. The flaying of M. Tardieu was intensely dramatic, even if at times almost a little painful for the spectators as well as for the victim.” M. Tardieu had overstated his case, and “roundly asserting that the policy of France during the last year had been based on the conclusion that the financial clauses of the Treaty of Versailles could not be executed, had gained considerable applause by declaring that this was just the thesis of the pacifist, Mr. Keynes, and of the German delegate, Count Brockdorff–Rantzau,”—which was certainly rather unfair to the Paris Decisions. But by that date, even in France, to praise the perfections of the Treaty was to make oneself ridiculous. “I am an ingenuous man,” said M. Briand as he mounted the tribune, “and when I received from M. Tardieu news that he was going to interpellate me, I permitted myself to feel a little pleased. I told myself that M. Tardieu was one of the principal architects of the Treaty of Versailles, and that as such, though he knew its good qualities, he would also know its blemishes, and that he would, therefore, be indulgent to a man who had done his best in fulfilling his duty of applying it—mais voilà (with a gesture)—I did not stop to remember that M. Tardieu had already expended all his stock of indulgence upon his own handiwork.” The monstrous offspring of propaganda was slowly dying.
V. The First Conference of London (March 1–7, 1921)
In Germany the Paris proposals were taken seriously and provoked a considerable outcry. But Dr. Simons accepted the invitation to London and his experts got to work at a counter–proposal. “I was in agreement,” he said at Stuttgart on February 13, “with the representatives of Britain and France at the Brussels Conference. The Paris Conference shattered that. A catastrophe has occurred. German public opinion will never forget these figures. Now it is impossible to return to the Seydoux plan put forward at Brussels (i.e., a provisional settlement for five years), for the German people would always see enormous demands rising before them like a specter.... We shall rather accept unjust dictation than sign undertakings we are not firmly persuaded the German people can keep.”
On March 1, 1921, Dr. Simons presented his counter–proposal to the Allies assembled in London. Like the original counter–proposal of Brockdorff–Rantzau at Versailles, it was not clear–cut or entirely intelligible; and it was rumored that the German experts were divided in opinion amongst themselves. Instead of stating in plain language what Germany thought she could perform, Dr. Simons started from the figures of the Paris Decisions and then proceeded by transparent and futile juggling to reduce them to a quite different figure. The process was as follows. Take the gross total of the fixed annuities of the Paris scheme (i.e., apart from the export proportion), namely $56,500,000,000, and calculate its present value at 8 per cent interest, namely $12,500,000,000; deduct from this $5,000,000,000 as the alleged (but certainly not the actual) value of Germanyʼs deliveries up to date, which leaves $7,500,000,000. This was the utmost Germany could pay. If the Allies could raise an international loan of $2,000,000,000, Germany would pay the interest and sinking fund on this, and in addition $250,000,000 a year for five years, towards the discharge of the capital sum remaining over and above the $2,000,000,000, namely, $5,500,000,000, which capital sum, however, would not carry interest pending repayment. At the end of five years the rate of repayment would be reconsidered. The whole proposal was contingent on the retention of Upper Silesia and the removal of all impediments to German trade.
The actual substance of this proposal was not unreasonable and probably as good as the Allies will ultimately secure. But the figures were far below even those of the Brussels experts, and the mode of putting it forward naturally provoked prejudice. It was summarily rejected.
Two days later Mr. Lloyd George read to the German Delegation a lecture on the guilt of their country, described their proposals as “an offense and an exasperation,” and alleged that their taxes were “ridiculously low compared with Great Britainʼs.” He then delivered a formal declaration on behalf of the Allies that Germany was in default in respect of “the delivery for trial of the criminals who have offended against the laws of war, disarmament, and the payment in cash or kind of $5,000,000,000”; and concluded with an ultimatum[8] to the effect that unless he heard by Monday (March 7) “that Germany was either prepared to accept the Paris Decisions or to submit proposals which would be in other ways an equally satisfactory discharge of her obligations under the Treaty of Versailles (subject to the concessions made in the Paris proposals),” the Allies would proceed to (1) the occupation of Duisberg, Ruhrort, and Düsseldorf on the right bank of the Rhine, (2) a levy on all payments due to Germany on German goods sent to Allied countries, (3) the establishment of a line of Customs between the occupied area of Germany and the rest of Germany, and (4) the retention of the Customs paid on goods entering or leaving the occupied area.
During the next few days negotiations proceeded, to no purpose, behind the scenes. At midnight on March 6, M. Loucheur and Lord DʼAbernon offered the Germans the alternative of a fixed payment of $750,000,000 for 30 years and an export proportion of 30 per cent.[9] The formal Conference was resumed on March 7. “A crowd gathered outside Lancaster House in the morning and cheered Marshal Foch and Mr. Lloyd George. Shouts of ‘Make them pay, Lloyd George!ʼ were general. The German delegates were regarded with curiosity. General von Seeckt wore uniform with a sword. He wore also an eyeglass in the approved manner of the Prussian officer and bore himself as the incarnation of Prussian militarism. Marshal Foch, Field–Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, and the other Allied soldiers also wore uniform.”[10]
Dr. Simons communicated his formal reply. He would accept the régime of the Paris Decisions as fixed for the first five years, provided Germany was helped to pay by means of a loan and retained Upper Silesia. At the end of five years the Treaty of Versailles would resume its authority, the provisions of which he preferred, as he was entitled to do, to the proposals of Paris. “The question of war guilt is to be decided neither by the Treaty, nor by acknowledgment, nor by Sanctions; only history will be able to decide the question as to who was responsible for the world war. We are all of us still too near to the event.” The Sanctions threatened were, he pointed out, all of them illegal. Germany could not be technically in default in respect of Reparation until the Reparation Commission had made the pronouncements due from them on May 1. The occupation of further German territory was not lawful under the Treaty. The retention of part of the value of German goods was contrary to undertakings given by the British and Belgian Governments. The erection of a special Customs tariff in the Rhineland was only permissible under Article 270 of the Treaty for the protection of the economic interests of the Rhineland population and not for the punishment of the whole German people in respect of unfulfilled Treaty obligations. The arguments as to the illegality of the Sanctions were indisputable, and Mr. Lloyd George made no attempt to answer them. He announced that the Sanctions would be put into operation immediately.
The rupture of the negotiations was received in Paris “with a sigh of relief,”[11] and orders were telegraphed by Marshal Foch for his troops to march at 7 A.M. next morning.